This one’s a doozy: The Commerce Department reports that housing starts last month registered their steepest drop since 1984, while permits tumbled to the lowest level in more than 40 years, points out sister blog MarketBeat.

Not surprisingly, the bleak data is weighing on shares of the home builders. What’s amazing is that they’re not seeing dramatic plunges: Sector giants PulteGroup and DR Horton are each down less than 1%.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist, Capital Economics: “Housing is still stuck in a rut.”

Dan Oppenheim, analyst, Credit Suisse: “This marks a new low for the cycle. …leaving little doubt as to the health of demand at the start of the spring season.”

David Resler, economist, Nomura Global Economics: “A broad-based drop in building permits reinforces the conclusion that housing market remains too weak to spur much new construction from home-builders. …Bottom line is that here in the 20th month of the economic recovery, the sector that normally leads both recessions and expansions has yet to gain any traction.”

Stephen East, analyst, Ticonderoga Securities: “While today’s data is certainly disappointing, we do not believe it is a basis to discount the entire spring selling season. We will wait another month or two before calling a trend.”